Chirag Paswan camp calls Nitish Kumar's caste survey a betrayal of Dalits, tribals
"Tejashwi Yadav was the one who made the most noise about the caste survey and had claimed it would be a revolutionary step towards social justice, but what happened was just a half-baked caste survey wrapped in political cleverness in which there was neither social justice nor inclusive thinking. It was only to strengthen the claim to the chair by highlighting the number of its M-Y vote bank", Bharti said.The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) [LJP(R)] MP added that the caste survey only counted the number of castes but did not provide details regarding which caste was how poor, which caste had access to education and which not, what is the share of various castes in government services and who has what rights over the land and resources.advertisement"Caste survey was a well-planned conspiracy to keep the Muslim and Yadav vote bank in power and administration. The survey was direct deceit against the Dalit, Mahadalit and tribal communities. The real objective was to convert the number of castes into a vote bank and strengthen their claim to power and not to give opportunities and rights to the deprived class", he said.Praising the recently notified proposed caste census by the central government, he said Chirag Paswan played a decisive role in the government getting approval for the actual caste census to take place, in which the idea was not only to collect numbers, but also to get details regarding the educational, economic and administrative roles of different castes."Now not just numbers, but complete social and economic details will be recorded. The condition of the Bahujan community will be presented with evidence in the constitution, policy and the court so that they can get a constitution and equitable reservation. The data collected will become a solid foundation for expanding reservations and policymaking in favour of the Bahujan community", Arun Bharti said.- Ends
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Business Standard
an hour ago
- Business Standard
Exercise done to ensure integrity: BJP on Bihar electoral roll revision
BJP National Spokesperson Shahzad Poonawalla on Thursday criticised the Congress for questioning the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists in Bihar and said that the exercise is being done to ensure the integrity of the electoral process. "...When the same ECI conducts elections in Karnataka, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh, and Congress wins there, then they raise no questions. However, this same party raises questions about the electoral process in Maharashtra and Haryana. Those who are specialised in booth capturing are questioning the electoral revision, which is being done to ensure the integrity of the electoral process...," Poonawalla told ANI. A delegation of INDIA bloc leaders from 11 political parties met with the Election Commission of India (ECI) in the national capital on Wednesday to register their opposition to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls currently underway in Bihar, calling it the "worst attack on the basic structure of the Constitution." Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, part of the delegation that met Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, questioned the timing of the SIR exercise, noting that it is being carried out only months before the upcoming Assembly elections. "Firstly, the last revision was in 2003. For 22 years, more than four of five Bihar elections have happened. Were all those elections faulty?... Secondly the Special Intensive Revision which was held in 2003, was held one year before the Lok Sabha Elections, two years before the Assembly election. Today you are having in July, a maximum period of one or two months for an electoral revision exercise of the second most largest electoral populated state in India, want to have it in one and a half to two months," the Congress leader told reporters after the meeting. Representatives of the Communist Party of India, CPI (Marxist-Leninist), Samajwadi Party, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress and other parties were present. The ECI has claimed that the SIR is only meant to verify voters and to identify any 'ineligible voters' ahead of the Assembly elections which are expected to be held later this year in Bihar. However, multiple political parties part of the Opposition, including Congress and Bihar's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), have raised objections to the exercise, claiming that it will be used to deny people their constitutional rights. The Bihar Legislative Assembly elections are expected to be held later this year, however no official date has been announced by the ECI as of yet.
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Why Bihar is witnessing fresh protests against amended Waqf Act
Last Sunday, thousands of people gathered at Patna's Gandhi Maidan to protest against the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025. The Waqf Act has been challenged in court, and the Supreme Court in May, after hearing multiple petitions, reserved its decision on the law. So why are protests in Bihar heating up now? We explain. The Patna rally The rally in Patna on June 29 was organised by Imarat-e-Shariah, one of the largest socio-education-religious body of Muslims in India. Imrat-e-Shariah chief Faisal Rahmani, who heads the organisation's operations in Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal, said that though the amendments to the 1995 Waqf law have been passed in Parliament, he does not believe all is lost yet. 'If the Centre can take back the three farm laws because of overwhelming protest from farmers, the same thing can happen with the Waqf amendments. The changes in the new Act are facing heavy resistance in several states,' Rahmani said. The Imarat-e-Shariah says that as the Centre dismissed 300-plus representations about the amendments, it has now decided to summarily reject the amended Act, demanding reinstatement of the Waqf Act, 1995. Rahmani pointed out that is is difficult to furnish documents proving Waqf ownership of old properties, and asked if the Centre would demand similar paperwork for the places of worship of other religions. He called the amendnents an 'attack on brotherhood and citizenry.' Why has the Muslim body chosen Bihar as the main ground for protest? Bihar has over 17 per cent Muslim population, usually believed to be the constituency of the RJD and the Congress. The state goes to polls in a few months, and the Opposition parties are trying to capitalise on the anti-Waqf Act sentiments. Plus, the Imarat-e-Shariah has traditionally had a strong presence in Bihar from the time of its former chief the late Wali Rahmani, who founded the popular coaching programme Rahmani30 in 2008. The organisation has been getting direct and indirect support from non-NDA parties, especially from the RJD. Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav had been the main speaker at the Gandhi Maidan rally, which was very well-attended. What next? Now that it has held a successful rally in Bihar, the Imarat-e-Shariah plans to revisit its district units in Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Odisha to further intensify the protests at ground levels. It also plans to interact with like-minded bodies from UP, Maharashtra and other states to consider a rally at a bigger level, preferably in New Delhi. In the legal challenges to the amendments, some key issues were flagged. The first was the doing away of the concept of 'Waqf by use', which means that land used for Muslim religious or charitable purposes for a long time can be deemed to be a Waqf even if it is not registered as such. The inclusion of non-Muslims in Waqf boards; the District Collector getting powers to decide that a Waqf property is government property; and allowing the applicability of the Limitation Act with respect to Waqf properties — which would prevent the Waqf board from making legal claims, like opposing encroachment, about a property after a certain period had elapsed — are among the other changes being opposed. In April, the Centre assured the Centre that it would pause the doing away of the 'Waqf by use' provision and inclusion of non-Muslims on Waqf boards. Santosh Singh is a Senior Assistant Editor with The Indian Express since June 2008. He covers Bihar with main focus on politics, society and governance. Investigative and explanatory stories are also his forte. Singh has 25 years of experience in print journalism covering Bihar, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. ... Read More
Hindustan Times
4 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Bihar electoral roll revision: Concerns persist as party reps meet ECI
Concerns persisted even as representatives of 11 parties, including the Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), met top Election Commission of India (ECI) officials to oppose the special intensive revision of the electoral roll in poll-bound Bihar. Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi called the revision a violation of the level playing field. (PTI) RJD lawmaker Manoj Jha said that the two-and-a-half-hour meeting with chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, and commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, on Wednesday was not cordial, and the reflection that should have accompanied their concerns was absent. He called the revision a conspiracy to 'displace' tens of thousands of people in Bihar. '...It is also a question of Bihar's identity. You have set out to find doubtful voters in Bihar, and that reveals your intentions…' Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi called the revision a violation of the level playing field. He added that if voters are left out, it would be an insult to the Constitution's basic structure. The ECI has said an electoral roll revision was last held in Bihar in 2003, which covered nearly 50 million people, underlining it has a constitutional obligation to ensure that only citizens are on it. It instructed the electoral registration officers to treat the 2003 electoral roll as 'probative evidence of eligibility, including presumption of citizenship unless they receive any other input otherwise.' Singhvi noted that 22 years have passed since 2003 and questioned whether all the elections held during this time were wrong and not according to the rules. 'If you had to conduct an intensive revision, why announce it in June? They could have done it after January. The documents you [ECI) are asking for over the last decade have been Aadhaar and ration card.' He said now one needs a birth certificate, and documents of the father and mother. 'Migrants, already suffering from floods, will keep running around for documents.' Singhvi said a level playing field has for decades been the foundation of elections. 'Those who are on the voter list [and] without documents will find themselves deprived of their right to vote.' He said the backward communities will have to run around, without documents, despite their names being on the list. 'This is a violation of the level playing field because it is the foundation of any election and a republic, which in turn is the basis of the basic structure of the Constitution. Any insult to this [voting right] will be an insult to the basic structure.' Jha echoed Singhvi and said they raised the concerns of Bihar's poor, downtrodden, backward, Dalit, and Muslim communities. 'We submitted how this is…an attempt to displace people; a conspiracy to remove them from the voter roll…If the purpose of any exercise shifts from inclusion to exclusion, what can we say?' He questioned the rationale for repeating something done 22 years ago. 'There was no answer. Are your employees equipped? No response. What will happen if issues arise within a month? The criteria you use to measure people do not have those documents.' Jha said he was referring to those lacking sufficient belongings. 'These are poor people enduring both drought and floods, and in the midst of this, you demand documents within a month. If your [ECI] intention is to displace people on a large scale, this story would not end here. There will be a flood on the streets, too.' He called the right to vote the most important right. '...one vote, one value, whether it is an industrialist or a landless farmer. If you are [ECI] tampering with that right at someone's behest… I hope the ECI reads the writing on the wall.' Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said that the ECI brought up Maharashtra, where Rahul Gandhi has alleged industrial-scale voter rigging, to justify the exercise in Bihar. 'The Commission did not say anything about why there was no prior consultation. For the people of Bihar, this is like notebandi [demonetisation]...they call it votebandi [restricting voting]. They [ECI] did not even indicate expanding the list of documents supporting eligibility, although they may consider something at a later stage.' Bhattacharya said they made all the points, but the ECI did not say anything. '...these are no concerns [for ECI]. The voting right itself is at stake.' The ECI said the concerns of the political parties were fully addressed and maintained that the revision was being conducted as per the Constitution. 'The Commission thanked all political parties for appointing more than 1.5 lakh [150,000] Booth Level Agents (BLAs) at the ground level for participating in the SIR [special intensive revision] exercise. ...thanked all political parties for actively participating in the SIR process so that no eligible voter is left out.' On June 24, the ECI announced the revision, emphasising the need to clean the electoral roll due to rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, increasing numbers of first-time voters, non-reporting of deaths, and the inclusion of names of undocumented foreigners.
